AlexL
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Posts posted by AlexL
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I don't know. Seems pretty fair. I mean what do you pay for a Pay Per view fight that last what??? Sometimes less than 60 seconds??? $50 to $100 bucks????
When you factor in gas,food,hotel and other travel expenses to get to finals $69 bucks looks like a bargain.
I dont pay for that either.
This is more of the same from DCI. Charge high prices for small volume instead of increasing volume (and exposure) at a more general-audience friendly price. Same thing they do with the DVDs (a model they try so hard to keep going at the cost of losing a LOT of exposure value on platforms like youtube) The only 'big news' here is they should have done this years ago.
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$69 seems a bit extreme. As much as a pretty good ticket to the actual event.
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Honestly (as an XM subscriber)... no.
If they get bandwidth for another channel, they wont be adding this. I mean theyve already cut some other stations, such as the Cinemagic channel that probably had a lot more interest than drum corps ever will.
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Madison 05.
After dropping out of finals in 02, they climbed back in in 03, had kind of a 'meh' show in 04 (malaga was fun but the rest... meh) that still garnered 8th, but 05 was terrific. Best show theyve had since the 90s IMO. Loved watching them that whole summer. Wasnt a huge climb placement-wise going from 8 to 6, but it was definitely a huge climb in show quality.
Unfortunately then they followed that up with the disaster that was 06, and then compounded things in 07.
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Not a bad crowd at this one last night
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No, no I mean to this level. How many times do you see a corps lose 5 points on a spread in 2 days. lol I mean, it's just like clockwork.
Between 6/23 and 6/26 there was a 5 point margin swing where blue stars went from beating troopers by 3.5 to losing to them by 1.5
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There are so many threads on here about how DCI is failing, maybe it is the fans who are failing.
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I tried to calm the natives earlier this week that there will be volatility when some shows have 5 judges, others have 8, and the captions judged are weighted differently as a result. Tonite's show had 8 judges by the way. This is Spring Training for both judges, staffs and MM's alike. Minny regionals begins the real season. In the meantime , my suggestion is for everybody to relax and just enjoy the shows that each corps is putting out.
Not to mention that quite often scores early on tend to parallel the end of the prior year until the judges get some views and then often you can see some radical movement. See: blue stars 08 where they were starting out the season ranked as low as 14th place and getting beaten by colts. Early july and into the first regional is when things get more interesting.
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Beyond TV matters, i would say that DCI is shortsighted in its mis (non) use of youtube in favor of its niche (and outdated) fan network platform. For the gains it gets from a small number of people at $60 a pop (minus the costs of the platform) it loses a lot of exposure opportunity that could be getting a lot more people to show up in person. Yet some have this odd view that if they can see it on youtube they wont bother going to shows... which i think is exactly the opposite.
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So, I'm sorry to be a stick in the mud, but I have a problem. I don't love any of this year's shows. I've watched what's available on the Fan Network and, frankly, I'm disappointed. Is there something wrong with me or something wrong with DCI?
The best show of the bunch is Phantom, but even that feels . . . different. With the exception of SCV, it seems like everyone is taking a turn toward Weird Town, where BD Is the mayor. This is a town where everyone must have obtrusive props and electronics of you're penalized. This is not to say the members aren't putting forth a great effort and executing well, but it's more a reflection of the designers and the "adults in the room." What in the world is happening?
The music selection/arrangement is perhaps the biggest disappointment for me. Sure, there are some great moments, but the overall entertainment value is suffering. I feel like I"m hearing and watching a modern dance ensemble rather than drum corps. I really, really help this is just a passing fad because, if not, I don't know how much longer I can stick around.
Please help.
/rant over.
Youre completely right, honestly. The direction things have been moving is pushing a lot away. I have more than one friend who used to be into drum corps but just isnt interested in how its gone all visual/guard/dance and the music and the 'drum corps' of it has fallen away. I mean hell, im barely interested and am not sure if i'll make it to a show this year for the first time since my first show in 03 (hell, i have 13k posts on this site yet i rarely post on it anymore)
And youre right about "it seems like everyone is taking a turn toward Weird Town, where BD Is the mayor" and its a big reason there's been so much hate for BD (among other reasons)... because the more the judges reward what theyre doing, the more corps are going to try to copy that formula.
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08 Phantom
06 Cavaliers
04 Cavaliers
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If the merger is between 2 corps in dire financial straits, that's only going to result in one corps in similar financial shape. And if the debts accrued are held against corps assets, the merged corps wouldnt have much to work with.
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I think corps should get over it and use it to build hype, they should be happy that people want to see/hear their content and feed it to them
Agreed with this. The secrecy so many corps employ throughout the offseason is a bit over the top, from trying to hide all recordings before the first show, to waiting until #### near tour to announce the show\repertoire, etc. Its not a national security secret, its a bunch of kids in funny hats blowing into metal tubes and banging on things.
Honestly, i get pretty disinterested during the offseason. It isnt until i see some pre-season recordings that my interest starts to come back.
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I'm a TEP, and I disagree. The top corps are too expensive and increase the price of our contract way more than we can sell enough extra tickets to make up the difference. In case you didn't know, the top corps are getting $5,000 per show. That is a huge increase in the past few years. The next level down gets $3,000 and below the top 12 gets $2,000. So I would rather have 2 non finalist corps rather than one top 6 - save a $1,000 and be able to advertise more corps appearing. (As I said earlier, we've seen very little difference in ticket sales based on our lineup. We had 2 top 3 a couple of years ago and advertised the heck out of that and... no difference from the year before when we had no top 3) You probably know that we don't get to pick our show line ups, so I can't say to DCI -" no top 6 please and give me more non-finalists." But if I could, I would. And I can't say this is true for all shows of course, but it is absolutely true of mine. (Many years in now so lots of data to support this)
This makes sense to me. While a lot of us who have spent time around the activity are pretty discerning, to those whose only exposure is a few shows (likely just their yearly local show), most are very entertained by the 12-17 group. They see an entertaining product that is very precise by any standards theyve seen (mostly compared to local HS groups), and dont necessarily see the dirt that we've been trained to see. Ive seen crowds go nuts over 14th ranked groups. You do start to see a drop-off in fan reaction as you get to the far low end (especially the smaller corps), but thats pretty irrelevant when we're talking about the g7, as id wager the next 7 corps are just as entertaining to 90% of fans as the g7. Hell, madison, one of the non g7 corps, gets as much if not more reaction than just about any g7 corps. Certainly more than the recent champion..
So when most fans are almost equally entertained by 6 corps no matter their makeup, its hard to justify the investment, and hard to justify the 'we are the show' mentality from the g7
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The Chinese word for "crisis" (simplified Chinese: 危机; traditional Chinese: 危機; pinyin: wēijī; Wade–Giles: wei-chi) is frequently invoked in motivational speaking along with the statement that the two characters it is composed of represent "danger" and "opportunity."
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The fact is, drum corps is a niche activity. You have to know a little something about it in order to get it. In order to draw a fan such as your sister, we would have to completely change what we are. That isn't going to, and shouldn't happen. We need to stop trying to make drum corps something that it isn't.
The problem is that its a niche within a niche that often drives a lot of things. Drum corps has the potential for a wider appeal than it has now, but many simply go headstrong with their own artistic ideas of what drum corps should be regardless of whether it will sell to audiences or not.
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It was interesting watching some of the Blue Stars' fans dance the past few years...we love the g7, opps
I dont recall many blue stars fans loving the G7 thing..
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It amazes me. People were up in arms and flailed around about how all these corps that were in trouble put kids at risk and were so irresponsible. Here's a corps with over 50 years of history who at one point was a top 3 drum corps not that along ago, who is simply saying we got behind, please help us insure our future. The corps could not be more responsible. Everyone always says the corps is too private. Here's a good example. Corps come out looking for help at a bad time and is met by the same naysayers. ###### if you do, ###### if you don't.
Thanks to everyone who has helped so far. I'm hearing very positivethings about the eff
Well, while this is certainly better than coming out while on the road and saying 'we're broke', its still #### late in the game. Posting a note that in 30-60 days more is needed than the corps raises in all non-dues sources in a year?
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the entire drum corps community should really start supporting DCI and not just "the corps who are cool"
Or just become 'cool'. Not singling out glassmen on this but there are those that could afford to be more audience friendly. Where do you think crown got such a fan following? From doing highly accessible shows that many dcp elitists called 'too cheesy'.
Sure, drum corps is art, and its fine if you want to go certain directions with your shows... but some directions are going to pay the bills better than others.
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DCM was just a regional association, but the rules and format were exactly the same as DCI. That's not what I'm talking about. Tiny corps had to compete with Cavaliers and PR and Star, etc, and that type of comparison and competitive environment does those small corps no favors, since the kids in them eventually start feeling like they're peeing into the wind.
I'm talking about a totally new animal using the same tools as the current format, but geared toward corps who only want to field 20 horns but perform at the same performance levels as the big dogs in WC. A much smaller physical space, more creative use of instrumentation, different time limits, and a judging system that rewards execution and audience connection first and foremost.
Sure, they were on the same fields as Cavaliers\PR\etc, but they also had a ton of competitive opportunities within short driving distances (so less cost).
I remember our tour in 05. We had 8 shows in WI. Another 4 in IL. 3 in MN. A few more in IN\MI\IA. A corps could literally sit in the midwest, and often in the same state, have very little travel time every night, still get a bunch of performance opportunities, and only leave for a short finals stretch at the end. Is that possible now without all the shows that died off when DCM was killed?
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Here's a thought, how is Pioneer making it work. They're not always at the top of the food chain competitively, but they field a corps and make something happen.
But again, it's obviously DCI's fault.
To be blunt, theyre not fielding a competitive drum corps, not just 'not always at the top'. So i'm not sure you could say its working when year in year out theyre not even in the competitive game.
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Well, speaking only to the statement in bold, if G-Men charge $2,500 for tour, times 150 kids, that is $375,000 right there. If they charge $3,000, that is $450,000 (and I have NO idea what they charge each member). Then add the fees they get from appearances, and it is not that far fetched to get to $550,000.
This puts how much they need in perspective. In 30-60 days Gmen need almost as much money as their entire dues bring in, or put another way, they need more money in 30 days than they get from all non-dues sources in a year, or even multiple years.
And this doesn't address the future. What will they do to make things sustainable? If they can only raise 550k a year from dues\fundraisers (even if they get 300k this time, it won't work if they do this year after year), can they survive dropping their operating budget by more than 25% to get to that level when a lot of the costs are uncontrollable transportation costs. Especially if i were the type of major donor it is going to take to get to 300k this quickly, i would want to know the plan beyond just 2013 but into the following years as to how this corps plans to meet its budget. If not, its just throwing money at a lost cause.
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I agree...if they are moving three busses around anyway, they may as well maximize the revenue produced by each 'seat' on the busses, unless the revenue ends up being less than the expense of uniforms, instruments and meals.
Assuming you couldn't use that space for something else, however, like volunteer seating. If 15 volunteers could fit on the bus before but then require separate transportation, that adds costs on that side.
DCI major announcement?
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
kind of an asinine comparison.
It would cost several grand for me to go to the superbowl too, but i sure as hell am not paying $50 to watch it